Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
Sorry for the long wait for an update! The team is now all back from holidays, but half of it is caught out and knocked out by a flu wave going though.


A fancy design by nacho, vastly preferable to the flu.

In the meantime we have been working on polishing up the new UI look quite a lot, as well as added quite a few good feature, gotten rid of nasty crashes, and in general added quality of life stuff like tooltips and so on. We just posted a new Little Dev Update video showing what we're working on and talking about where development is headed. The most recent one is from today, showing much of what the new UI looks like:

https://youtu.be/75clZqftsDE
In case you missed it, we also posted one about a month ago, talking about all kinds of new features that also will be coming with the next patch:

https://youtu.be/0mPCa5IbAY4
A few fixes to the campaign are needed before we can get the patch to you, but it looks like next week is a reasonable target.

Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
After many weeks of fixing, optimizing, fixing, adding content, and… fixing stuff that broke again, we do have all the changes rolled into the public branch of the game to serve as a new foundation for the next leap forward in features. Below you find a summary changelog of LCV3 Patch 4 and 5. If you want to see all the changes made, just have a look at the two previous news posts!


The 1990 Vic Reffafi by Flash in the new 10s Design Room photoscene

This is a good point to opt out of the openbeta branch for those of you who chose it only because of some specific fixes and crashes. From here we’ll do some more ToDo list clean-up and add more depth to the factory management in the campaign. As always, these changes will come to the openbeta branch first, but may have their (un-)fair share of bugs.

It sure feels good to finally be able to get this massive list of important fixes over to the public branch, especially all the game stability related things, which should be a big improvement for many who had been struggling with seemingly random crashes of the game.

Here is the summary list of the most notable fixes and improvements since the previous public build from March 20th.

New Content & Tweaks (Patch 4+5 Summary)
  • New improved paint system, with simple and advanced mode
  • Implemented familiarity mode. Visible on item tooltips. Toggle with Alt-key
  • Added many new car bodies, body variants (including Lord Gaben requests)
  • Added many new fixtures
  • Added new themed number plates
  • Added GPU driver detection to launcher, warning about outdated drivers
  • Added 10s Design Room photoscene
  • Added a darker 90's-ish variant on the modern studio photoscene
  • Added paint sorting by Name or Hue
  • Softtops & Trays can now be painted
  • Implemented the effects of production flags (limited / no mass production)
  • Implemented interest rate dependencies on loan conditions and financial situation
  • Updated factory information for tooltips and comparison tooltips
  • Updated general look of sliders
  • Added button in photoscene to directly open screenshot folder
  • Reimplemented and improved sandbox car cost estimation
  • Tweaked gearbox weight scaling (don’t get heavy as fast with more torque)
  • Rebalanced the cost of R&D, making the lower levels more attainable
  • Added Debug Menu, open with F9
  • Much improved photoscene car movement controls

General Fixes (Patch 4+5 Summary)
  • Fixed issue throughout the game that could cause random crashes
  • Added code signing for better compatibility with anti-virus software
  • Fixed a whole load of campaign related bugs (yes, bad ones)
  • Fixes for many many car bodies and fixtures
  • Fixed and tweaked many familiarity synergies
  • Suspension choice no longer allows choosing incompatible designs front vs. rear
  • Fixed suspension ride height weirdness in campaign cars, causing stat fluctuations
  • Fixed issue where the car would "forget" its power distribution and become RWD
  • Fixed various items not having the correct production limiting flags
  • Fixed grid mode car manager not working for sandbox
  • Tweaked interior weight scaling with quality
  • Fixed display issue that could show negative months signing off projects
  • Fixed Engine Factories not correctly finding their production flags
  • Fixed demographics not growing depending on their demographic type

Game Optimizations (Patch 4+5 Summary)
  • Disabled framerate smoothing with VSync, as that was causing low FPS
  • Fixed various small and medium sized memory leaks
  • Optimized calculation performance for campaign play
  • Optimized updating of UI with ongoing calculations, more responsive
  • Optimized loading of fixture thumbnails

For anyone who has had stability issues with the public build, this one should alleviate most of your issues. Give it a go and let us know if things are working as intended. :)

Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
Note for RC3: A quick Saturday patch to get rid of the weird issue the RC2 build had with headlight fixtures and the remaining tooltip inconsistencies. This hopefully is our final release candidate for this update. Give it a go and see if there are any bigger issues that need addressing asap. :) Cheers!

In today's patch we have a lot of under the hood fixes and optimizations for you, along with a new improved car paint system. Also we have optimized campaign calculations and database handling. It should play a lot smoother and make the game more stable as a whole.


MGR99's design for the Merano Dalius

The plan for this update is to have it in openbeta for a few days and then put it onto the public branch. There are so many fixes and improvements since the last public build, we want to get it out to you as soon as possible. Have a look at the changelog below and give this version, available on the openbeta branch, a go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqRr5589rQ

B190525 RC3
  • Fixed remaining tooltip issues
  • Fixed headlight fixtures not appearing correctly

B190524 RC2
  • Fixed hold / reverting function which deleted the car choices
  • Fixed tooltips and comparison tooltips
  • Fixed Photoscene presets not loading the car position and settings correctly
  • Removed faulty price column in sandbox car manager, correct car price on testing page

B190523 RC1
  • Fixed issue where the car would "forget" its power distribution and become RWD
  • Fixed suspension preset / ride height resetting wheel material / color
  • Fixed steering angle resetting car rotation in photoscene
  • Fixed competitor cars reading out zero reliability in competitor comparison UI
  • Fixed car rotating after moving it in the photoscene while it has non-zero steering angle
  • Fixed freshly designed cars reverting names back to default names in home screen
  • Fixed all slider plus buttons having a bad hitbox

B190522 Hotfix 5
  • Fixed body quality slider not working correctly
  • Fixed (potentially) paint system where non-paint materials change on their own
  • Fixed materials like carbon not properly being exported to BeamNG

B190521 Hotfix 4
  • Fixed issue with some car parts not recoloring correctly
  • Fixed various items not having the correct production limiting flags
  • Fixed issue with car affordibility ratings in sandbox

B190520 Hotfix 3
  • Fixed missing 60s sports coupe bodies
  • Fixed rims being matte black by default
  • Fixed default colors / materials not showing correctly in UI
  • Fixed 10sSedanLarge_Wagon being 4 instead of 5 door
  • Fixed dyno to engine driveshaft connection
  • Fixed issue with UK style number plates
  • Fixed passenger volume not being displayed correctly in stats

B190517 Hotfix 2
  • Added paint sorting by Name or Hue
  • Fixed global paints not live previewing on car
  • Fixed previous tab button not disappearing from UI on body selection
  • Fixed pinned market for car in campaign not updating correctly
  • Fixed grid mode car manager not working for sandbox
  • Fixed engine bay fill factor not showing correctly in engine family tab
  • Fixed campaign issue that allows to sign off without an estimated trim price
  • Fixed display issue that could show negative months signing off projects
  • Fixed issue with displaying the export path for BeamNG exports
  • Fixed Engine Factories not correctly finding their production flags
  • Fixed mass project sign off showing negative shifts for multiple car projects
  • Fixed issue with HRL badge not showing up
  • Fixed problem alloy and steel material
  • Fixed leather and cloth material exporting white to BeamNG
  • Fixed EU CD05MR0 plate sticking out too far
  • Fixed and updated numerous numberplate textures

B190516 Hotfix 1
  • Added 10s Design Room Photoscene
  • Fixed crashes related to fixtures in general and fixtures / body loading
  • Fixed red bumper glitch, rear bumpers didn't recolor correctly
  • Fixed quality slider buttons not working properly
  • Fixed fuel economy test page in detailed stats
  • Fixed the numbers for reputation and prestige showing the same value
  • Fixed issue with selecting the gearbox / drivetrain
  • Fixed weight being rounded too much on car summary page
  • Changed low flake paint setting to have no flake, i.e. none
  • Added double clicking a paint swatch to apply it to the current slot
  • Added main slot controls to 2nd paint tab to allow for quicker navigation
  • Added function to click the paint above the edit slot button on the paint UI
  • Added GPU driver detection to launcher, warning about outdated drivers

B190515 Main Features
  • New improved paint system, with simple and advanced mode

B190515 Art Fixes / Additions
  • Added new themed numberplates
  • Fixed car body bounds issues for several cars
  • Fixed various specific car body issues
  • Fixed pickup bodies not having paintable beds, more still to fix
  • Updated general look of sliders
  • Added button in photoscene to directly open screenshot folder

B190515 Optimizations
  • Disabled framerate smoothing, as that was causing low FPS
  • Fixed various small and medium sized memory leaks
  • Various SQLite optimizations and data compacting for campaign
  • Optimized month tick calculation performance for campaign play
  • Optimized loading times of car bodies
  • Optimized fixture placing to reduce freezing for complex fixtures
  • Optimized updating of UI with ongoing calculations, more responsive
  • Optimized loading of fixture thumbnails
  • Optimized demographics to use one tooltip widget instead of 60

B190515 General Fixes
  • Fixed deleting a planned facelift causing corruption to parent model
  • Fixed default car materials not importing correctly in new paint system
  • Fixed issue throughout the game that could cause random crashes
  • Fixed issue with company reputation dropping fast in campaign
  • "Fixed" issue with engine sounds, upped min engine idle to 600 RPM
  • Fixed signing off factory throwing you out to wrong UI tab
  • Fixed issue with deleting a planned facelift or trim upsetting the calendar
  • Fixed interaction between familiarity and engineering setup sliders
  • Fixed issue with cross-configuration familiarity gain for engines
  • Fixed forecaster buttons not having a selected state
  • Fixed demographics not growing depending on their demographic type
  • Fixed Body Quality Slider causing UI to reload
  • Fixed a situational crash on exiting the game
  • Changed game build version numbering system
  • Photoscene sublevel option now only appears with 1+ options
  • Added tooltip to display reason a factory is unavailable for selection

B190515 Modding
  • Fixed issue in modding tools, Example Decal mod was missing

Let us know about any issues you discover in the bug posting thread here in the forums! :)
Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
In the fourth big patch for the LCV3 update we have all sorts of changes for you. The big ones for campaign play are the familiarity view mode which colors selections according to how familiar your company is at producing them. That will show how different parts are interconnected, giving you some expertise even at engineering components you never engineered before.

For the car builders / designers among you, this update features a new paint / materials system that now allows you to have pained special materials like chrome (yes, you can make golden chrome cars now, until you get punched by someone), and colored carbon fiber. Also the update brings some awesome new car bodies (including special request by Lord Gaben), and more fixtures to go along with them.

Please note that as was stated in the most recent Little Dev Update, your campaign game saves will no longer be compatible with this new version. We release it to the openbeta branch first, so that you can switch over to the default branch and finish off your campaign in the coming days before this update is merged with the default version.


The 'Di Inferi Prototipo Dieci', by Miurena.


B190425 Hotfix 3
  • Reimplemented and improved sandbox car cost estimation
  • Tweaked gearbox weight scaling (lighter at higher engine torque)
  • Fixed issue with body quality slider causing freeze crashes
  • Fixed photo mode only showing car first time you load it up
  • Fixed turbo journal bearings not being selectable
  • Fixed crash happening when closing Automation

B190424 Hotfix 2
  • Added Debug Menu, open with F9
  • Added option to debug menu to show/hide fixture names on tooltip.
  • Fixed semi-spaceframe factory addon requirements
  • Fixed / re-added missing photomode button to car designer
  • Fixed tooltip for fuel availability, now 75% or below shows in red
  • Fixed head quality not affecting octane requirements
  • Tweaked block and head material familiarity synergy groups
  • Fixed Boxer 6 broken familiarity synergy groups
  • Fixed issues with some familiarity tooltips
  • Fixed familiarity colouring for 30+% familiarity
  • Compounded tire type and tire compound for familiarity

B190412 Hotfix 1
  • Added 90sLuxurySedans
  • Added missing Kammback version of 70sUSCoupe
  • Added fixture button for tow hitch, re-added missing tow hitch
  • Fixed missing RWD gearbox textures
  • Fixed issue with UI timeline acting weirdly and blocking some UI selections
  • Fixed some issues with familiarity not accumulating for the correct items
  • Fixed / improved familiarity synergies
  • Fixed color swatch ordering to be sorted by name
  • Tweaked interior weight scaling with quality
  • Fixed plastic material being white in BeamNG exports
  • Removed broken, accidentially released 70sSupercar until its done
  • Changed 00sVan to unlock in 85
  • Fixed Van tag on 70sPanelVan
  • Improved Fixture Stamping UVs on 80s Vans and 2010s Coupe
  • Improved morphing behavior of wheelarches
  • Photoscene car movement controls now suck less
  • Fixed teleport to car functionality in photoscene
  • Improved lighting on car thumbnails


B190411 New Features
  • Added code signing for better compatibility with anti-virus software
  • Implemented familiarity mode. Visible on item tooltips & toggle by pressing Alt-key. The colors still don't quite work in the listboxes, will be fixed tomorrow!
  • Implemented the effects of production flags (limited / no mass production)
  • Implemented interest rate dependencies on loan conditions and financial situation
  • Reworked the paint system
  • Softtops & Trays can now be painted
  • Added fixture non & transparent window material as an option
  • Added a darker 90's-ish variant on the modern studio photoscene
  • Added a 00s Small Hatch body
  • Added a range of 00s/10s sport coupes (special request by Gabe Newell)
  • Added wings/lights/vents/grilles to suit the sport coupes
  • Replaced some of the gearboxes with better looking ones (transverse front)

B190411 Art Fixes
  • Reworked all morph positions on 10sSedan02Large family to fix melting issues.
  • Reduced 70sUSCoupe_Small rear chassis length by 20cm to avoid clipping
  • Reduced 70sUSCoupe rear chassis length by 10cm to avoid clipping
  • Reduced 70sLuxury_Cor family's rear chassis by 15cm to avoid clipping
  • Removed side trim from 00sPonySmall
  • Increased 90sSUV maximum wheel diameter
  • Fixed weird paint lighting issues on the sides of cars
  • Fixed 2.7m wheelbase McLaren-esque body weight issues
  • Fixed 10sSedan02Med4dr having no passenger box
  • Fixed missing second seat row in 60sSUV
  • Fixed 1995 Coupe body has an issue with its coupe variant, front bumper
  • Fixed 60sSedan05 family front bumper being split down the middle
  • Fixed 60sVan from melting when selecting a different variant
  • Fixed wonky morph on rear right wheel arch for 70sCoupe02
  • Fixed rear morphs on 80sLMP
  • Fixed missing bits of body at the front bumper of 00SedanCompact-Coupe
  • Fixed pinched morph on 60sSedan02, fixed whole family bumper painting
  • Fixed 60sSUV from exploding when you try and morph it, added second seat row
  • Fixed 10scoupelarge from chassis clipping in the rear
  • Fixed 90smidcoupe off-centred wheel and added nose morph
  • Fixed 10Roadster_Large-FB fixture tearing on front of bonnet / windshield
  • Fixed 1945 people mover body being "melty"
  • Fixed 70sCoupeLarge02_Sedan_ being a coupe, instead of a... Sedan

B190411 General Polish
  • Added nicer country selection to markets tab of trim & hub
  • Added keyboard controls: Space or P to pause, x or + for faster, z or - for slower
  • Added tooltip to time controls to tell you about these keys
  • Suspension choice no longer allows choosing incompatible designs front vs. rear
  • Improved appearance of trim stats on details & test-track sub panels
  • Redid how the paint thumbnails are generated, for better readability
  • Improved fixture thumbnails through better lighting
  • Sharpened up horizontal & vertical sliders for better contrast
  • Added Max and Min awareness to dealership screen, disabled unfinished items
  • Added better tooltips to engineering pages of car and engine projects
  • Added tooltips to engine / car project items on 3rd tab
  • When selecting existing engine, changed the button text to "Select Variant"
  • Fixed wrong icon for number of engines produced by factory
  • Improved the engine designer's default camera position

B190411 General Fixes
  • Fixed the economy randomizing itself every time you load your save
  • Fixed car import errors for some database versions, implemented better handling of that
  • Fixed issue where specific materials couldn't be used on a body more than once
  • Fixed suspension ride height weidness in campaign cars, causing stat fluctuations
  • Fixed bonnets turning grey when hidden instead of disappearing
  • Fixed rare loading issue with some mods that stopped other tasks from completing
  • Fixed issue with the test tracking braking test and tires bursting due to downforce
  • Fixed modifying a new engine family through a trim slot not updating its family
  • Fixed sequencing issue in project managers
  • Fixed some chassis part options still referring to "Tameness" as a stat
  • Removed broken title tooltips from car/engine project tabs
  • Fixed future factory size name not showing correctly in factory overview

B190411 Balance Tweaks
  • Fixed and tweaked many familiarity synergies
  • Rebalanced the cost of R&D, making the lower levels more attainable
  • Rebalanced how the brake fade calculations factor in 'disc size', now not linear

B190411 BeamNG Exporter Fixes
  • Fixed issue with bonnets disappearing for exported cars in BeamNG
  • Fixed carbon fibre being weirdly bright and shiny in BeamNG
  • Fixed issue with specific cars hovering above the ground in BeamNG

Next up are the addition of the factory and tooling hitpoint systems that make your factories wear down over time. That will factor into not only retooling time and cost, but also your cars' production quality and with that your company prestige, reputation, and in future production batch recall rates. Alongside a lot of fixes and further polish, obviously.

Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
This week's big patch comes with a mixed bag of fixes and additional content. As you can see the changelist is slowly shifting towards more polishing rather than straight up fixes - which of course is a good thing. That doesn't mean we're out of issues to tackle of course... let me check... there are "just" ~150 items left on our ToDo list for this update. With most things not even being on there.


The new photoscene! Car by LS-Vehicles.

Plenty more impovements and fixes coming your way! Anyway, here is the changelog:

B190321 Art Fixes & Additions
  • Added Canyon photoscene
  • Added several of 80s vans
  • Added 2.6m wheelbase version of 2010s coupe
  • Added 70sBL20-35_4dr and 70sBL20-35_5dr car bodies
  • Added a few 60s sports car fixtures, and modern round headlights.
  • Added sunroof/window option to fixture UI
  • Unified car & fixture paint thumbnail generation
  • Fixed chassis poking out in rear with 00sSupercarLarge
  • Fixed 10ssedan02small body family chassis issues
  • Fixed fixtures cutting holes slightly offset on 10sSUVHuge_02 family
  • Tweaked reflections and ambient occlusion in the car design room
  • Removed a factory that was not supposed to be in the isle of skye photoscene
  • Fixed missing texture for front Solid Axle Coil suspension
  • Fixed the 1955 pickup and 40s Jeep Ute being labeled as a "SUV"
  • Fixed the 10sSedanSmall having the wrong body
  • Fixed incorrect (very high) weight for 90SUV_5dr
  • Fixed too short engine bay of 10s_Full_Cor
B190321 General Fixes & Improvements
  • Tweaked how wide V engines to be a bit narrower in the bay
  • Changed trim/variant/family/model grid items to use textbox as title
  • Added tooltips to fixture paints with icons (trim, bumper etc)
  • Improved graph in hub, more useful scale and axis
  • Added tooltips to car project & engine project factory items and panel
  • Added tooltips to plot selection buttons
  • Improved plot control UI, disabling if they're not usable
  • Added difficulty score multiplier info to campaign end screen
  • Photo manager now actually takes 1080P and 2160P photos as stated
  • Trims overview now picks best scoring demographic by default after cloning
  • Reduced font size on hub graphs
  • Added tooltips to summary items on 2nd panel of factory
  • Fixed scenarios list being empty, all tutorials and scenarios are back
  • Fixed issue which prevented upgrading to a huge factory
  • Fixed Market & Economy graph being inverted
  • Fixed glued aluminium monocoque chassis requiring steel presses
  • Fixed not reaching 100 km/h being seen as amazing in demographic taste
  • Fixed engine facelift not automatically switching to the new engine for other cars
  • Fixed issue with bumper color becoming indicator texture
  • Fixed all paints reloading when a car paint or fixture paint is selected
  • Fixed graphs with overriden axis labels and values showing data labels incorrectly
  • Fixed engine renaming on 5th panel of car project
  • Fixed last two timeline sections having same tooltip name
  • Fixed factory UI not showing need for galvanization plant
  • Fixed behavior of the BeamNG Export button in the car manager
  • Fixed new Campaign presets not showing correct score (due to tech)
  • Fixed Engine/Car Hold/Revert controls incorrectly reloading UI
  • Fixed driver assists engineering/production units tooltips not updating correctly
  • Fixed chassis material tooltip sometimes being tricky to open
  • Fixed environmental resistance being the same for all chassis materials

The patch is now live on the opt-in openbeta branch of the game and we're looking forward to more of your feedback.

Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
Note: This patch, including its two hotfixes, is now on the main public branch of the game. Enjoy!

Today's patch is a bit smaller than what we'd like it to be for two reasons. Our lead programmer was knocked out by an "it's just a flesh wound" accident and spent a few days in hospital (now recovering), while our other programmer spent a full week on drastically cleaning up some of the structures of the car and engine project code, unifying them as much as possible in the process. The latter won't be visible to you, but will save us from lots of issues in future and make changes quicker. The former will just leave a big scar.


MGR_99's rendition of the Merano Verdini.

Despite that, we're continuing to fix and polish up the LCV3, and here is the changelist for today's patch released only to the openbeta branch of the game for now.

B190315 Hotfix 2
  • Fixed BeamNG Exporter producing cars that can't be loaded in BeamNG
  • Added new car body 70sBL20_35_2dr
  • Added safety confirmation for deleting projects
  • Fixed (probably) the issue of you not being able to select a project region in the LCV3
  • Fixed issue of model/family data not being properly given to all trims/variants
  • Fixed not being able to rename facelifts
  • Fixed selection of demographics for trims from hub
  • Fixed factory names not saving
  • Fixed issue with 60sSUV_SWB being in the wrong car body family
  • Removed descriptions being that of "Compression" everywhere

B190314 Hotfix 1
  • Added Steel & Window Material as options or fixture paints.
  • When a trim or variant needs updating / fixing, it now flashes the edit button
  • Fixed the preset fixture modes not showing on the fixture paint UI
  • Fixed issue with autosave not saving correctly in some situations
  • Fixed cars from old version not being able to be imported anymore (openbeta issue)
  • Fixed (for real now.. hopefully?) trims and variants renaming themselves
  • Fixed issue with deleting and then creating a new facelift not updating data correctly
  • Fixed facelift where not changing engine showing original engine engineering time

B190313 Improvements
  • Tweaked factory load management AI to more evenly split shift load
  • Improved savegame naming and timestamps display
  • Polished up some campaign UI (Model / Family project managers)
B190313 Fixes
  • Fixed campaign difficulty issue, competitor strength was reset to 50% on new game
  • Fixed issue with brake quality slider effect on brake fade being broken
  • Fixed high factory cost on upgrading / retooling factories after 2+ uses of factory
  • Fixed engineering time table in car summary engineering times
  • Fixed issue with how mods are processed, to make loading more reliable
  • Fixed loans not being visibly added to your current money until month tick
B190313 Art Fixes
  • Fixed number plates looking black
  • Fixed melting issues on 80s190 family
  • Fixed 90s Flatnose people mover body causing game crashes
  • Fixed ute tray holes from fixture stamping on 90spickup family
  • Fixed up some lighting and redid some materials in the canal photoscenes
  • Fixed material inconsistencies between raised and lowered car lifts in design room

More coming next week! :)
Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
Note: B190304 is now also on the default public branch.

In today’s first patch for the Big LCV3 Update we are dropping some major changes, both visuals and gameplay related. Of course there are plenty of fixes too, including some to address launcher issues some players were having.


New lighting, reflections, and design room styling.

As you can see we have changed the car design room to be terribly 70s, which will be one of the several styles of design rooms the game will feature era dependently. More will follow soon-ish! :) The new lighting / reflections (thanks to titleguy1) and look of the cars should more than make up for that accurately depicted poor taste though. Now you can design beige shitboxes in their natural habitat!

B190304 Fixes
  • Fixed mistakes with grouping of engineering times in engineering table
  • Fixed issue of extremely long safety engineering times

B190301 Visual Facelift
  • Major lighting rework in car design room for much better paint reflections
  • Design room now 11/10 on 70s styling scale (different eras coming)
B190301 Improvements & Changes
  • Now the game allows you to make engine projects without factory
  • Widened track width of 100+ bodies to make engine bays wider, tyre width more realistic
  • Made V engines a little less tall in general
  • Made V engines quite a lot wider (across the V)
  • Improved pearl paint settings and shine slider progression
  • Rebalanced quality slider effect on ET, PU, Cost, widened viable range
  • Changed finances graph to be operating income/expenditure graph
  • Flipped ordering of variants in engine projects manager
B190301 Content & Art Fixes
  • Added 60s muscle coupe / roadster body
  • Fixed various car bodies with melty distorted bones bug
  • Fixed lighting/shading issues on 90sFlatnose_Cargo
  • Fixed smoothing on 90sFlatnose
  • Fixed very short wheelbase on 10sSport
  • Fixed a few bodies where chassis would stick out of rear in some cases.
  • Fixed issue with the cap used at the ends of the bumper bars
B190301 General Fixes
  • Fixed issues with launcher many players had (thanks Eddy BT!)
  • Fixed issue with sandbox markets selecting multiple regions
  • Fixed issue with changing a family without properly invalidating / refreshing its variants
  • Fixed and added loan options
  • Fixed issue with UI displaying previous instead of current choice in factory
  • Fixed engine size widget being pinned to the top not bottom on family designer

You will not get the update automatically yet because we have not been able to properly test it yet (with your help!), hence why we at this point reintroduce an open beta branch you can opt into if you want to get improvements, fixes, and... new bugs... earlier!

In order to opt in to the branch simply right-click the game in your library, properties, betas, select the "open" branch from the betas drop down and wait for the game to update.

Enjoy!
Cheers
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
This big milestone update brings the first playable version of the Lite Campaign V3 (LC V3) to the public branch. It is still considered to be a work in progress and a lot of UI features that will make for a smoother experience are going to be implemented in various patches the coming weeks.

Experienced players definitely can start to dip their toes into the campaign now and we’re looking forward to the getting it a lot more polished up before moving on to implementing the LC V4 features: the proper sales / market algorithm, and engineers / staff, as well as much more market and financial info.


The new "Isle of Skye" photo scene.

Lite Campaign V3
  • Facelifting existing car trims and engine variants
  • Engineering & factory setup
  • Modelled factories and factory add-ons
  • Project finances forecasting tools
Additions & Improvements
  • Switched to updated game engine UE4.21.1
  • Many more car bodies and fixtures to choose from
  • Many more rear- and mid-engine compatible bodies
  • Improved game mechanics and realism in car and engine designers
  • Improved BeamNG Exporter
  • Improved engine sounds
  • Additional photo scenes
  • Improved and fixed UI and UI feedback
  • Tons of bugfixes and small improvements

If you have been playing and following the openbeta branch, you might want to check out the change list since last Friday’s release candidate build RC1. Have a look here.

Your old cars and engines from the previous public version will be compatible with this one and should automatically get converted. Due to the much needed game engine upgrade to UE4.21, old mods will no longer work and will have to be updated by their creators. Note that this implies that some mods you used might be missing when you load your older cars using mod bodies or fixtures.


The new "Sea of Information" photo scene.

Game Versions & Branches
With this big update we are merging all branches of the game to the default branch. That means the game will automatically update for everyone. This needs to be done to get rid of some of the install problems we’ve been having that were created by switching between the versions. Once the update is out we will create this branch structure:

default - The normal main public branch.
open - Opt-in branch to get patches and updates earlier, with more bugs on average.
kee_and_ue4_17 - Opt-in previous public version based on UE4.17.2 including the old Kee Engine based version of the game with the LC V2.

What's Next?
In the coming weeks we will continue to update the LC V3 with weekly patches until we’re at a point where mostly bigger changes are necessary to proceed in development. This will be the point where we start work on the LC V4 features.



Thank you for your continued support and patience with these updates.

Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
With today's merging of the branches we bring to you a rather substantial patch that has many fixes since last Friday's release candidate 1 (RC1). For you who have played the open beta we'd like to thank you again for your support in finding and reporting issues, as well as your patience.

This is change log for RC2, which will be the public release version coming out today:

B190227 Additions
  • Big rework/improvements to engine sounds
  • Added Isle of Skye photoscene
  • Added autosave (like sandbox) in campaign play in addition to manual and yearly saves
  • Made car windows allow fixtures to be stamped
  • Added 40s, 60s, 80s and 00s offroader bodies
  • Added 00sHypercar bodies
  • Added 90s Flatnose, 90s SUV
  • Added 00s Van and 60s Van bodies
B190227 Tweaks & Improvements
  • Tweaked engine bay sizes to be a little bit higher and a tiny bit wider
  • Campaign saves are now ordered by saved time & date
  • Extended maximum loan repayment time to 10 years
  • It is now possible to engineer an engine without a factory
  • Added that factories can have new configs added through factory manager UI
  • Added tooltips to hub demographic screen to explain what is shown on each demographic
  • Simplified RON - AKI conversion to be AKI = RON - 5 for better playability
  • Reenabled undo / redo button for fixtures when no fixture is selected
  • Losses now show in red in the production calendar timeline
  • Now displays alerts when engine projects are finished
  • Tweaked cost progression of team funding and tooling optimization in engineering
  • Pushrod engines now have a starting familiarity rating of 35%
  • Editable text boxes now correctly show the text edit mouse cursor
  • Unified country selection widget & added more information
  • Added on-hover info for trims in grid-view project manager
  • Added more info to the campaign end screen
  • Added tooltips on Trims Produced By Factory in 3rd tab of factory setup
  • Added tooltips on "Sales Price and Margin" in Production and Sales tab
  • Disabled currently unused buttons in Production and Sales tab
  • Improved visuals to indicate what you're working on when making a facelift
  • Signing off nothing in mass-sign off now takes you back to the hub
  • Added Familiarity display for engine family
B190227 Art / Car Fixes
  • Fixed issues with trim paint in 00sVan body family
  • Fixed 50s Saloon default tire diameter being really small
  • Fixed 40sSedanLarge_Wagon from being offset from all its morphs
  • Fixed issues with materials and weight/cargo calculations on 70sCoupe02
  • Fixed some fixtures being blue / red and duplicated
  • Fixed extra cam pulley spawning in cylinder 1
  • Switched pause and play icons on top bar
B190227 Fixes
  • Fixed paint changing related crashes
  • Fixed engine projects never setting older facelifts to superseded
  • Fixed factories being editable when not selected
  • Fixed forecast parameter buttons not having a selected state
  • Fixed facelift renaming not working
  • Fixed temporarily disabled engine factories never becoming active again
  • Fixed the campaign hub demographic scores only using Gasmea's scoring
  • Fixed being able to click world-map through car project UI
  • Fixed clicking + or - in markets screen deselecting the region
  • Fixed deleting items not updating grid in manager
  • Fixed cloning trims & variants auto-collapsing everything in car/engine manager
  • Fixed exhaust piping sometimes extending to another room
  • Fixed old savegame issue with engine architecture
  • Fixed "Select Countries to Compare" in markets screen
  • Fixed car archetype scenarios not working
  • Fixed switching the test track spawning more track list items
  • Fixed deleting a trim or variant from factory production list not updating the UI
  • Fixed gear ratios tooltip not updating when switching gearbox type
  • Fixed seat count resetting when changing body variant
  • Fixed missing data in engine factory widgets on engine factory manager screens
  • Fixed factory UI to only show current and future state, never past states
  • Fixed inconsistent time alignment between engine and car factories with their projects
  • Fixed the family and variant bump forward a year when reloading / importing a model
  • Fixed max shifts not being possible to change
  • Fixed showing in engine engineering how many engines are being made
  • Fixed being able to set the marketing level negative, breaking calculations
  • Fixed crash when clicking the little disclaimer button in launcher
  • Fixed car stock not updating once it is no longer being produced
  • Fixed sign-off screen showing wrong number of produced cars for multiple-factory setups
  • Fixed being able to edit a family after signing off the first facelift
  • Fixed galvanized monocoque chassis not showing steel presses requirement
  • Fixed car exporting from campaign projects manager
  • Fixed production number of cars / engines not changing with engineering sliders
  • Fixed bug in familiarity system gaining in wrong categories
  • Fixed pausing and resuming of production
  • Fixed facelifting making a duplicate of non-facelifted trims in the production calendar
B190227 BeamNG Exporter Fixes
  • Fixed BeamNG Exporter hanging on Sourcing Lua Data

We're going continue to patch this big LCV3 update until it plays well enough to move on to implementing the LCV4 features.
Cheers!
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game - Killrob
We were planning to release on (this) Monday the public version of the big campaign update that has been in open beta for a while now. In order to make this as smooth as possible we've decided to delay the release by about a day and use that time to add some more quality of life features as well.


One of the photo scenes that will be added with the next patch.

The release was shifted to be on Wednesday morning our time, i.e. Tuesday evening for most of you, which means that if there are any issues popping up we can react to them quickly because we're all in office for another full work day after the release of the update.

We will merge all game branches so that everyone automatically is on the latest build. Then we are adding a separate stand-alone Kee Engine branch, a separate legacy UE4.17 branch, and a new opt-in open beta branch for those of you who want to get patches earlier while accepting more bugs in the process.

Cars and engines will be compatible with the new version, but mods might not have been updated and thus missing from your cars. All mods will have to be updated to UE4.21 to be compatible with the default version of the game.

That should be all for now, a big change log of what fixes / tweaks have been made since the recent RC1 build will be posted before the release.

Cheers!
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